Passport

I am so glad that we are only required to renew our passport once every ten years. The company requires us to have them for work. I luckily don't technically need one on my normal routes but I usually use mine at least twice a month. Well everyone knows it takes around six weeks to receive a passport back after it's been mailed in. My passport expires in June. I decided that it would be best to have the passport out of my hands as few days as possible. The quickest way to get a passport is going to an actual passport agency. The closest one is in Los Angeles. They will only let you have an appointment if you can show that you have a flight booked that leaves within two weeks. Over the last couple of weeks I have worked some on getting stuff together to get mine renewed. I took my photos, printed out the appropriate forms, and made a list of the required information I would need.

I decided on Friday morning to get the passport taken care of. I had no idea it would consume my entire day. I called to make an appointment first thing in the morning. Of course the system is automated...I had some issue and had to transfer to a live person who transferred me back to the automated system which kicked me back to the live person who again transferred me back to the automated system. Headache! My appointment was scheduled for 1:00 pm. I thought I could just go in and explain that I work for the airline and needed my passport all the time. But apparently I needed a letter from work. So after getting off the automated nightmare I called work to get a letter. Luckily the administrative assistant in LA is amazing. I told her I had an appointment at 1pm that day and she said she would have it ready. This means on top of having to drive to the Federal Building for my appointment I also needed to stop at LAX to get my letter.

I left at 11:30. Cindy (the assistant) met me up at the gates with my letter and parking pass. I was totally out of gas so I had to find a gas station by the airport. I was nervous because I was really out of gas. I used my GPS and of course he took me to a gated area with school buses (what?). I had to search for a different gas station. This was obviously in a very busy area with a lot of traffic and a lot of stop lights. I eventually found a gas station but I arrived 20 minutes late to my appointment. I didn't even know if they would still see me or if I would have to reschedule.

I don't know what exactly I was expecting. I guess I was expecting that since I had an appointment I would arrive and be ushered to someones desk who would take care of everything. It was more like the DMV but worse. I got in one line. The lady looked at my stuff and gave me a number. Then I waited for a very long time for my number to be called. I took my stuff up to a different lady. She asked when I needed my passport. I basically told her that I always need it for work. She asked when I work again. I said "tomorrow". She said that it was past the cut off but that she would talk to the supervisor. Luckily they told me they would get it to me that day but it would be a long wait. A couple hours later I did get my passport.

I was one of the last people to leave that joint. I got it just in time for rush hour traffic. I sat in traffic for two hours but at least I got it all taken care of that day!